Bush, Blair 'no moral ground' against Iran

IranMania.com | December 3 2005

LONDON, December 2 (IranMania) - Neither Prime Minister Tony Blair nor the US President George W Bush is in a position to take a high moral line on Iran's nuclear programme, according to former British Energy Secretary Tony Benn, IRNA said.

Benn suggests that a look back at the conveniently forgotten history of when the US and UK were supporting building of a nuclear programme in Iran under the shah in the 1970s was needed to "understand the depth of western hypocrisy."

As Britain's Energy Secretary at the time, he said in an article for the Guardian newspaper Wednesday that there was a scheme for Iran to order Westinghouse pressurised-water reactors (PWRs) and for the UK to do the same.

"It was actually being suggested as part of this deal that Iran would become a 50 per cent owner of our nuclear industry for the purpose of building the PWRs," Benn revealed.

He said that the proposal was supported by British Prime Minister Jim Callaghan in 1977, who argued that "we should not reject the Iranian approach since he thought that either the Germans or the French would take it up."

"Most astonishing of all, in the light of the present discussions, is that the problem of Iran developing such a huge nuclear capacity caused no problems for the Americans because, at that time, the Shah was seen as a strong ally," he said.

The 80-year old former MP said that there "could hardly be a clearer example of double standards." It "fits in with the arming of Saddam (Hussein) to attack Iran after the Shah had been toppled, and the complete silence over Israel's huge nuclear armoury," he said.

"Given that the prime minister himself is determined to upgrade Trident and appears to be committed to a new series of nuclear power stations, his position as the defender of the non-proliferation treaty is not very credible," he also said.

Benn, who is a veteran anti-war campaigner, expressed fears that the US and the UK governments may be going down the same route that led to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, he suggested, "could find himself in the same position as was Hans Blix, the Iraq arms inspector who was used by Washington for its own purposes, with the US seeking a UN resolution to condemn Iran and then, if that fails, acting unilaterally using force, as in Iraq."

"If the problems now being discussed can be dealt with in a practical way through the IAEA, there is a real chance of an agreed solution, and that is what we should be demanding since neither Bush nor Blair is in a position to take a high moral line," he warned.

The former Energy Secretary repeated that he was strongly opposed to nuclear weapons and civil nuclear power and that his comments should "not be taken as endorsing what Iran is doing."

But Britain's past nuclear links with Iran, he said, "should encourage us to be very cautious and oppose those whose arguments could be presented as justifying a case for war, which cannot be justified."

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